Not long after Gu Sheng left, a commotion broke out outside.
"Son! What happened to you?!"
A voluptuous woman suddenly burst into the room, breathing hard as if she had just run a marathon. Her chest rose and fell with each shallow breath.
When she saw me lying there with Bai Xue on my chest, her expression twisted for a moment before melting into maternal affection.
"Sweetheart, I rushed over as soon as I heard you'd been stabbed."
She hurried to my side, pushing Bai Xue aside and yanking open my hospital gown to check the bandage on my chest.
"Does it hurt when I touch it?" she asked, brushing her finger lightly over the dressing.
"A little, but I can barely feel it," I replied with a soothing smile.
After checking it, she withdrew her hand and shifted her gaze to Bai Xue.
Coldly assessing the girl.
"I heard you were stabbed protecting Bai Yue, and that she carried you to the hospital… But it was Bai Xue who did it, right?"
It wasn't surprising that she found out. What actually surprised me was that this farce had managed to fool everyone else at the hospital.
"Yes. She was about to be attacked, so I protected her."
Mother fell silent at my words, but I saw her eyebrow twitch for a split second before she smiled and said in a dangerously calm voice,
"Sweetie… I told you to take care of yourself. Why didn't you listen to Mommy?"
I swallowed, carefully choosing my next words. An inexplicable fear crept over me, as if I were truly standing before my own mother.
"If I get hurt protecting Bai Xue, then so be it. But I'll never let my family get hurt—whether it's you or my sisters."
She fell silent. My words must have struck deep.
I met her gaze without fear, making it clear I wouldn't change my decision, though inside I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
With a resigned sigh, she spoke again, her voice softer this time.
"Alright. Just promise me you'll never make Mommy worry like this again."
"I can't promise that." I gave a faint smile, looking fragile in that hospital bed. "I'll always protect my family, even if it kills me."
My words weren't directed only at Mother, but also at Bai Xue, who was awake.
For some reason, she kept clinging to me, pretending to be asleep.
[...]
[Host, I recommend you don't provoke Bai Ning like that.]
Bai Ning? That's my mother's name?
But why shouldn't I provoke her?
[Bai Ning is a Yandere Mommy-type Heroine.]
"…"
I looked at Bai Ning again.
Her maternal smile had frozen.
A dark gaze was fixed on me.
When our eyes met, a familiar chill ran down my spine—a familiar sense of foreboding.
!!!
That day, when Bai Yue hugged me… the danger I felt didn't come from Gu Sheng…
As that realization sank in, the air in the room seemed to grow heavier. I immediately looked away and forced myself to stammer something, but the words stuck in my throat.
The wide maternal smile never left Bai Ning's face, but there was no warmth in it—nor coldness.
It was completely empty, just like the darkness in her eyes.
Her fingers brushed my face, pinching my cheeks before she leaned down until her lips touched my ear.
"Don't say foolish things again."
Her voice was calm, but it sounded like it could shatter at any moment.
The tingling pain in my cheeks was the only thing left when she walked away.
Bai Xue was gripping my shirt tightly, but she relaxed once Bai Ning left.
I stroked her hair, trying to calm myself, and murmured,
"Go back to sleep."
A wet warmth spread across my lap.
"Sorry…"
Bai Xue was crying.
I couldn't blame her. I simply kept stroking her hair in silence.
"System… what kind of family is this? Everyone's a heroine. Everyone has some kind of mental issue. Is this genetic?"
[Isn't that a good thing, Host? That way you have multiple heroines to break.]
"Show me the status."
____
Bai Ning Affection: 90 (Old Obsession)
Bai Ning Corruption: 90 (Old Obsession)
____
Fuck…
"This makes no sense. I didn't even exist in this world until a few days ago. How could she already have this Obsession with me?"
[A small correction. Thanks to the fabricated narrative, it's as if the character Bai Ryuu has always existed in this world.]
"You knew that and still didn't give me any of the original Bai Ryuu's memories?"
[Those memories wouldn't have been relevant, as no character in the story held any deep impression of Bai Ryuu.]
"Fine. Then why did this happen?"
[An error must have occurred with Bai Ning.]
A system error…
Interesting.
Maybe I can take advantage of that.
"I deserve compensation."
[???]
"Your mistake made an unstable woman obsessed with me. I deserve to be compensated."
[You should be thanking me. My error gave you a heroine on the verge of breaking. And you still have the nerve to demand compensation?!]
The damn system had a point, but so did I.
"But she could interfere with my breaking of other heroines."
[That won't happen. If it does, you'll receive equivalent compensation.]
"I hope so."
…
*Bai Xue POV*
I didn't want to fall asleep.
But the confrontation with Gu Sheng had drained the last drop of my energy.
Resting on Ryuu's chest… hearing the steady rhythm of his heart—the same heart that had nearly stopped because of me—was my only safe harbor after three years of pure hell.
I let myself sink into that warmth.
But the crash of the door opening dragged me back to reality in an instant.
"Son! What happened to you?!"
I froze immediately. I recognized that voice before I even opened my eyes.
It was our mother, Bai Ning.
Panic locked my throat. I kept my eyes shut out of pure survival instinct, my face still buried in Ryuu's shoulder.
I felt her hands shove me aside with a force that didn't match the image of a worried mother.
I was treated like a nuisance, an obstacle between her and him.
I heard the fabric of Ryuu's gown being pulled. She was touching his bandages.
"Does it hurt when I touch it?" Her voice was sweet, but there was something underneath that tone that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
When Ryuu answered in that gentle, soothing voice, I tightened my grip on his shirt.
Then the bomb dropped.
She knew.
She saw through my disguise effortlessly. She knew I was Bai Xue—and that Ryuu had nearly died saving me, not that bitch Yue.
My heart pounded so hard I thought she might hear it.
What would she do to me?
She had always been cold to me, always preferred Yue.
Now that I was the one who hurt her "precious darling," would she destroy me?
But Ryuu didn't hesitate.
"If I get hurt protecting Bai Xue, then so be it."
Those words struck me like lightning.
No one had ever stood on my side.
Not against Gu Sheng, not against Yue, and certainly never against our parents.
But Ryuu—lying in a hospital bed, struggling to breathe—was making me his absolute priority.
The silence that followed was suffocating. The atmosphere in the room turned dense, heavy, almost poisonous.
"Sweetie… I told you to take care of yourself. Why didn't you listen to Mommy?"
I could feel the tension radiating from Ryuu's body beneath me. He hesitated, and for a second, I thought he would give in. After all, who wouldn't under that pressure?
But then he spoke. Louder. Firmer.
"I'll always protect my family, even if it kills me."
The tears I had been holding back threatened to burst behind my closed eyelids.
He knew I was awake. He said it for me.
Even if it kills me.
Gu Sheng never risked himself for me.
Yue pushed me into the abyss.
But this boy… this beautiful, fragile boy was crowning me as something precious—something worth dying for.
An overwhelming, ugly, possessive emotion began to bloom in my stomach.
Suddenly, the air in the room seemed to freeze.
Bai Ning's aura changed.
The crushing pressure filling the space made me want to shrink away until I disappeared.
I couldn't see her face, but the darkness she exuded was tangible. It was the pure, destructive instinct of a predator.
"Don't say foolish things again."
Her voice was low, almost a whisper, but it carried such a real promise of violence that I trembled involuntarily. Only when the sound of her heels echoed down the hallway and the door closed did I manage to breathe again.
The tension left my body all at once.
I clung to him. The warmth of my tears soaked into his hospital shirt.
"Sorry…" I whispered hoarsely, finally opening my eyes.
I'm so useless.
I only bring him pain and danger.
Gu Sheng's rage, Yue's schemes, and now even our own mother's suffocating madness.
He's being surrounded by monsters… because of me.
But instead of pushing me away, instead of blaming me, I felt his warm hand gently rest on my head. His fingers slid through my hair in a slow, rhythmic caress.
"Go back to sleep."
No reproach. No anger. Just acceptance.
My chest tightened so painfully it almost hurt.
The last pathetic spark of feeling I still had for Gu Sheng went out right there, drowned in my own tears.
I won't accept anyone else in my heart anymore.
Ryuu is my brother.
He's all mine.
He's only mine.
If the entire world—even our own mother—wanted to hurt him or take him from me… I would become an even worse monster to protect him.
Mine… only mine.
I closed my eyes again, lulled by the sound of his breathing and the touch of his fingers, sinking into the deepest sleep of my life.
*End of POV.*
…
*Bai Yue POV*
The screen of my phone was the only source of light in the presidential suite.
I was lying on my stomach on the silk bed, kicking my feet in the air as I watched the live feed from the hospital room.
The smile on my face was so wide my cheeks hurt.
Watching Gu Sheng try to act like a dominant alpha male in front of Ryuu was the most pathetic and hilarious thing I had ever seen. My husband—the great, feared CEO of Shanghai—was being made into a clown by a bedridden boy with a weak voice.
"That's it… keep going, my little devil," I whispered to the screen, biting my lower lip when Ryuu squeezed Xue's hand and pretended to be in pain.
His manipulation was pure art.
He didn't use his fists to defeat Gu Sheng; he used guilt, shame, and fragility.
In less than five minutes, he not only drove the "alpha" out of the room, but also made the idiot Bai Xue completely turn against the man she had loved for three years.
My body shivered with excitement. The darkness inside Ryuu was a delicious abyss.
I wanted to dive into it.
I wanted to see how far he could go.
But then… the door opened again.
My smile froze instantly.
Bai Ning.
The air in my hotel room seemed to drop five degrees. My breath caught in my throat.
People in the underworld call me a viper, a Queen, a demon. They tremble when they hear those titles. But none of them know the monster who gave birth to me.
I watched through the screen as Mother brushed Xue aside like an insect and opened Ryuu's shirt.
Her movements were affectionate, overly maternal—but there was a possessiveness there that made me nauseous.
When Ryuu opened his mouth and made that stupid heroic speech—"I'll always protect my family, even if it kills me"—I clenched the sheets tightly.
"You idiot," I muttered, panic mixing with my anger. "Don't say that to her. You don't know what you're doing."
I saw the exact moment Bai Ning's smile froze.
Even through the phone screen, the distorted, murderous aura she released was enough to make my skin crawl.
I saw Ryuu's eyes widen in terror.
He finally realized.
He felt what I had always known: Mother's madness has no bottom.
She squeezed his face, whispered something inaudible, then stepped back, straightening her posture.
I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
It's over. She's leaving.
But before crossing the doorway, Bai Ning's steps suddenly stopped.
My heart skipped a beat.
Slowly, as if sensing something, she turned her head.
Bai Ning's black, empty eyes locked directly onto the hidden camera lens in the ceiling.
She looked straight at me.
Through space, time, and technology, her gaze pierced my soul.
The corners of her lips curled into the faintest, almost imperceptible smile—but it carried a deafening message.
"I know you're watching, Yue."
A silent scream of pure, primal terror tore through my throat.
"AHH!"
With a violent motion, I hurled the phone against the wall with all the strength I could muster.
KRAAASH!
The device shattered into dozens of pieces, raining shards of glass onto the Persian carpet.
I scrambled back on the bed, hugging my knees as my chest rose and fell in desperate gasps.
My hands—the same hands that had signed death sentences in the underworld without trembling—were now shaking uncontrollably.
"Damn her… damn her!" I panted in the darkness.
The excitement I had felt for Ryuu moments ago was completely swallowed by fear. Bai Ning isn't an obstacle.
She's a force of nature.
If I'm considered the Queen of Shanghai's Underworld, then Bai Ning could be considered the Queen of the world.
There isn't a single place in this world untouched by her influence.
Is it really worth offending her because of Bai Ryuu?
"Let's observe for now… maybe I'll be surprised."
*End of POV.*